Kevyn Aucoin's beauty line disappoints

There is a new batch of Kevyn Aucoin's products at Sephora. Surprisingly, given Kevyn Aucoin's status as the celebrity make up artist that stood above all others, they are fairly mediocre and brimming with run-of-the-mill ingredients. They really do little more than trade off Aucoin's name (which is, incidentally, pronounced Oh-kwen).

Take the Liquid Cyber Lip ($27). It has a daring metallic sheen and supposedly uses microsphere technology to "provide light coverage". Getting a closer look at Cyber Lip reveals a batch of common lipstick ingredients, some of which are irritants.

Lipstick manufacturing is notorious for borrowing things that typically have a very different purpose. There is polybutene, which because it is a tacky resin, turns up as squirril deterant (they don't like the feel of it on their paws). Polyethylene terephthalate is most commonly used as packaging for food (the sleeves inside a box of cereal, for example). There are also a couple of irritants: bismuth oxychloride, which can cause cystic acne; and isocetyl stearate, found to be irritating (although not severly) to rabbit skin at cosmetic concentrations.